Martin Klabus

So I will be shooting a short miniseries (as a cinematographer) within a few weeks. The production will be using Blackmagic URSA Mini 4K as our A camera and Sony a6500 as our B-cam. Most of the scenes will be shot A-cam only - especially interiors with good lighting. Sony a6500 will be used as our lowlight camera, since there are some night exteriors that Ursa won't be able to handle. The a6500 will also be used as a rigging camera (car scenes, gimbal etc.). There are also some dialogue scenes that call for two camera setups. Canon EF lenses will be used on both cameras. We will be shooting flat 4K 24fps for the most part (ProRes 422 on Ursa and X-AVC S 4K 100M on Sony). The mood of the series is quite naturalistic, so no extreme color grading or special effects. Is there anybody with any experience using Ursa Mini 4K as an A-cam and Sony a6500 as a B-cam? I'm looking for some advice on how to match the two systems in-camera (picture profiles and such), in post and on how to successfully work with both systems on the same project. How easily do the two cameras match color-wise? Slog2 or Slog3 on Sony? How problematic is the difference between 8-bit and 10-bit color (do I absolutely need an external recorder for a6500?) and what to shoot the daytime 120fps slow-mo on? Thanks a lot ? Cheers, Martin

Hi, I was browsing through different online shops for some bargain split diopters (a set of filters, 77 or 82mm), but I haven't found anything reliable yet. I don't have the budget to spend on new filters for 200+ dollars. Does anybody know where can I get used, cheap and sharp split diopters? Any help would be appreciated :)

Michael, thanks for the kind advice :) I will definitely prepare call sheets, use walkies and feed em' well ;) Half of my locations consists of exteriors and the other half interiors. Most of the locations represent a full scene. Most of the interior locations are not more than a 15 minute walk apart, although most exteriors are as much as 1,5h drive apart. As I wrote in my original post, I plan to shoot the film in the span of 5-6 months, since the story starts off in winter and concludes in spring/summer. The shoots won't last longer than 10 hours. I was thinking about squeezing all interior shoots in one week but that probably won't be possible because of crew/cast availability... As for the gear and eq, most of the equipment we will be using (lenses, slider/dolly, tripods, glidecam, sound eq etc.) is owned by me or my camera crew, but we still need to rent a small jib, some lighting eq and our main camera. Again, thanks for the feedback! Martin

So I wrote a script for a short film. It is not the first one and it won't be the first project I have ever made. But this is my biggest project yet and will be requiring some financing in range of an extremely micro budget - around 2000 dollars. The short film will be about 25-30min long. The title is Helmina - it is a psychological drama film. I am a 17-year old student filmmaker with aprox. 5 years of experience in filmmaking. I have written, produced, directed, shot and edited several short films, some of them winning different awards at several student film festivals in my country. The most recent film I shot as a DOP was awarded at a international film festival. But none of the projects I have worked on had a budget exceeding a few hundred bucks. I have shot lots of indy video productions, covered events and got into photography several years ago. I also love writting and making music (including soundtracks). The script is pretty strong in my opinion and is based on a novel by a well-known Slovene author and phychologist that recently passed away. The film would be shot on aprox. 20 different location, none of them being problematic and probably wouldn't require any permits. Majority of my cast (33 actors and extras) and crew (20 people) consists of talented friends, ex-mentors, student actors/filmakers/musicians and some semi-professionals in the local film scene. Almost everyone supporting the project is an enthusiastic individualwho doesn't request any 'real' payments. Although, I still need to cover the expenses - transportation, props, clothing, make-up, food, gear rentals and some music licenses. As I wrote earlier, 2000 dollars should be enough to cover it all. The film in terms of tech is not such a big project to make. There is only a bit of compositing and CGI planned. I have several options regarding financing the project: 1. I could contact national television, which of course leads an AV-project funding campaign; 2. There are several local institutions that could possibly be interested in supporting my project; 3. Crowdfunding - I heard Indiegogo is good for those kind of things; 4. Sponsorship - I could contact some local companies; 5. Band coverage - I want to use a song in the edit by the most commercially successful rock band in my country. Normally, I would have to buy a music license, but what if I try to get the project supported by this band since the most important scene in the film will be using their famous song? 6. A high school leading a drama department in my city supports those kinds of projects, but since I go to a different school with a music curriculum, I don't know if their authorities would want to support me. I am still looking for main actress-protagonist, which may be schooling there so there is a chance of success with this method; I have prepared several documents regarding the film. That includes the rewritten screenplay in the professional form, storyboard, budgeting documents, location and props/gear notes etc. I wish to start the production by the end of the year and continue it through the next 6 months. I would be very happy and thankful if some of you shared some pieces of advice on how to continue the preproduction for this project I love and really, really want to finish. I need tips and advice on producing this kind of project in my current circumstances. I hope I shared enought information regarding my situation... Thank you :) Martin

This is a short film I made in Oslo. Feel free to critique, comment and maybe share :) Thanks! Martin

Thank you very much for your feedback Frank! The homeless person shot is one of my favourites too :) Well for the CC... 1. Yes, it is indeed a mistake /something I didn't really "finish" in post (festival deadlines). The film wasn't completely shot on one type of camera and some scenes were also shot in various weather conditions (yeah, it sucks, but we had no time), so it was extremely hard to master matching all of those grades. It is something I will have to be more careful on my next shoots and also in post. 2. Interesting opinion :) It was the writer/director's idea and I just stuck with it. 3. Yeah, I wasn't really satisfied with the looks of "night-morning" scenes, so shooting/lighting/grading those is something I definitely have to improve in. Again, huge thanks for your opinion and CC, Martin

Love it! Like the cute story and cinematography style. What was it shot on and what did you use to grade it? The lighting looks great too! Did you have any problems lighting the home-depot scene? Added to liked videos on Vimeo :) Martin

This is a short film I shot earlier this year - Buden (Awake; directed by Simon Moe and Lara Lovrič). I also worked as a 1st AD, editor, producer, sound designer and colorist. The language is Slovene but it has HQ English subtitles. We are enthusiast student filmmakers with aprox. 4 years filmmaking experience. International festival Zoom 11 chose this film as one of the "Top 10" film (503 were submitted).I would be very happy to get some honest feedback, specifically on my cinematography. Majority of the film was shot on Canon EOS cams, the slow-mo sequence was shot on Sony A7s and some internal shots on Nikon D3300. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg5angkY8Ig&t=72s Thank you and best regards, Martin